IT'S HERE TO STAY, BABY

I admit going to an old rock 'n roll revival one time in St. Louis. While I may still have the program in the recesses of a long ignored box somewhere in my house, I'm pressed to name one group. I just remember it was a long night.

I also confess to stopping the remote when I hit on a PBS special on Do-Wops. I've even watched an hour or so of one of those shows. Somehow they never brought back many happy memories.

I mean the artists, if you can call rock 'n roll singers artists, are so old. But mainly, the lyrics don't work anymore either. When The Four Seasons ask "Sherry, baby, can you come out tonight?" that's bad. But they continue "you, ooh, ooh ooh, better ask your mama". Now if Sherry is still living with her mama, it may be in an assisted living unit or something. But if she needs to ask her mama if she can go out, well, she has some issues.

Another oldie I recently saw sung (or it could be saw sang, if I remember it's sing, sang/sung, sung) mentioned "you're 16, you're beautiful, and you're mine". "Happy birthday sweet sixteen," it continues. Sung or sang by a sixty-something, well, I'm afraid it didn't work too well. Maybe a tweak in the lyrics would help; I'd suggest "you're 60, you're beautiful and you're mine."

Even The Beatles, well the two that remain, could use some tweaking these days. "She was just 70, if you know what I mean/ and the way she looked was way beyond compare." Again, 17, doesn't get it. Except with a jail sentence.

Tweaking's not all bad. I've watched enough to observe that most can't reach those high notes anymore and have women back up singers carry that load. So my offer for lyric tweaking can't be far behind. But then again, maybe the originals are better and should be left alone. And if we want to enjoy them again, well we all have those old boxed to scour through.